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Top News
Just two years after becoming the first U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization, Apple has officially doubled its valuation to $2 trillion.
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Author and Former Pro Poker Player Annie Duke on How Conspiracy Theories Gain Ground
Earlier today, Facebook said it has removed hundreds of QAnon groups from its site, and that it’s restricting many more groups, along with hundreds of pages, and more than 10,000 Instagram accounts.
As the New York Times observed in its report about the maneuvers, four-year-old QAnon, once a fringe phenomenon, has gone mainstream in recent months despite a wide range of patently outlandish conspiracy theories, including that the world is run by pedophiles trying to damage Donald Trump and that 5G cellular networks are spreading the coronavirus.
How is this happening exactly? Because we happened to be talking this week with the famed former professional poker player turned best-selling author Annie Duke — an academic who now teaches about decision theory, including in her upcoming book “How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices” — we asked for her thoughts about whether and why more people than ever have grown susceptible to conspiracy theories.
She had some interesting things to say that we thought worth sharing. Stay tuned for a longer piece from our conversation about her new book and how it can help both founders and investors.
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Massive Fundings
Chinook Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Vancouver, British Columbia-based drug startup focused on kidney disease, is raising $106 million in funding ahead of its planned reverse merger with publicly traded Aduro Biotech. New backers that include OrbiMed and EcoR1 Capital are part of the round, along with earlier investors Versant Ventures, Apple Tree Partners and Samsara BioCapital. FierceBiotech has more here.
SpaceX, the 18-year-old, Hawthorne, Ca.-based space exploration company, has raised $1.9 billion in new funding, according to a regulatory filing flagged by Reuters. Bloomberg, which had a report about the funding round last week, said SpaceX will have an equity value of $46 billion after the transaction. More here.
Omio, an eight-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based travel booking platform, has raised $100 million in funding from earlier backers Temasek, Kinnevik, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, NEA and Kleiner Perkins. The company has now raised $400 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Hint, a 15-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of flavored water, has raised $25 million in Series D funding. Springboard Growth Capital led the round, joined by Philippe Laffont, Gingerbread Capital and Medina Heights Capital Partners. More here.
ImmPACT Bio USA, a year-old, Camarillo, Ca.-based company that's developing a novel set of engineered T-cell therapeutics that target loss of genes in solid tumors. has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Investors included OrbiMed, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and Takeda Ventures, among others. More here.
Pachyderm, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based open-source platform for data science, just raised $16 million in Series B funding. M12 led the round, joined by Decibel Ventures, and earlier backers Benchmark and Y Combinator. Business Insider has more here.
Xos Trucks, a four-year-old, L.A.-based maker of electric commercial trucks, just raised $20 million in funding, including from Proeza Ventures and BUILD Capital Group. TechCrunch has more here.
EasyKnock, a four-year-old, New York-based residential sale-leaseback company, has raised $5 million in extended Series B funding from Viola FinTech. The startup had closed on $20 million in Series B funding back in June, as outlined in The Real Deal.
iKala, a nine-year-old, Taiwan-based customer acquisition and engagement platform, raised $17 million in Series B funding led by Wistron Digital, with participation from Hotung Investment and Pacific Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Odeko, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based mobile ordering and supply chain platform for small businesses, has raised $12 million in Series A funding. GGV Capital led the round, joined by First Round, Primary Venture Partners, Box Group, Addition Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Bar 9, Balius, i2bf, and Y Combinator. Crunchbase News has more here.
Datasembly, a six-year-old, Washington D.C.-based company that provides product pricing, promotions, and availability data for retailers and CPG brands, has raised $10.3 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round, joined by Valor Siren Ventures, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Offr, a nearly two-year-old, London-based prop-tech platform that aims to digitize the buying, selling and leasing process for real estate agents and buyers, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Barclays. Earlier backers Delta Partners on behalf of Bank of Ireland, AIB, Enterprise Ireland, The European Investment Fund and Frontline Ventures also participated in the round. More here.
PadSplit, a three-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based startup that's creating a marketplace where homeowners can list rooms for rent for long-term stays, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Core Innovation Capital led the round, joined by Alate Partners, Citi, Kapor Capital, Impact Engine, and Cox Enterprises. TechCrunch has more here.
Pantastic, a four-month-old, San Francisco-based startup that's building a diversified web store that features a federation of brands in order to support independent retail, has raised $2.3 million in funding. Upside Partnership led the round, joined by Precursor Ventures, Moment Ventures, Industrious Ventures, 8-Bit Capital, and individual investors. More here.
Persefoni, an eight-month-old, Tempe, Az.-based software and data company focused on sustainability, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Rice Investment Group, with participation from Carnrite Ventures. Business Insider has more here.
Pixxel, a 1.5-year-old, Bengaluru, India-based startup that's preparing to launch its first Earth imaging satellite later this year aboard a Soyuz rocket, has raised $5 million in seed funding from Blume Ventures, Lightspeed India Partners, and GrowX Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Sendle, a six-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based carbon-neutral shipping carrier with a second outpost in Seattle, has raised $13.7 million from King River Capital, Alberts Impact Capital, and Marinya Capital. More here.
Two Front, a year-old, L.A.-based orthodontic service that brings patients' customized invisible aligners right to their homes, has raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding, including from Tuesday Capital, Lakehouse Ventures, and Blackjays Investments. More here.
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New Funds
Hangar, a six-year-old, New York-based venture studio for gov-tech startups, raised $15 million, including from the Kresge Foundation endowment and Michael Bloomberg. TechCrunch has more here.
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Exits
Playdots — a six-year-old developer of the mobile games "Dots," "Two Dots" and "Dots & Co."— has reached an agreement to be acquired by publisher Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two will pay $192 million for the deal, with $90 million in cash and the remaining $102 million in stock. Playdots originally spun out of startup studio betaworks with $10 million in funding led by Tencent and Greycroft. TechCrunch has more here.
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IPOs
Inhibrx, a 10-year-old, La Jolla, Ca.-based Phase 1 biotech that's developing single domain antibodies for cancer and rare disease, has raised $119 million in its IPO. Renaissance Capital has more here.
Just, the San Francisco-based, plant-based egg startup that was formerly known as Hampton Creek and three years ago looked to be facing certain death, tells the New York Post that it aims to turn an operating profit before the end of next year, and that an IPO could follow afterward. The company, which makes a mung bean-based egg substitute that comes in bottles and looks like fresh-beaten eggs, sells through Walmart, Kroger, and Whole Foods, and once it hits "operating profitability," founder and CEO Josh Tetrick tells the outlet, "then I’ll really begin considering an IPO with my team and with my board and with some of our major shareholders."
ThredUp, a San Francisco-based online marketplace for second hand clothing, is gearing up to go public, according to Bloomberg's sources, who say the IPO, targeted for early next year, could raise $200 million to $300 million. ThredUp raised $175 million last year from new and existing investors including Park West Asset Management and Irving Investors. ThredUp was valued in that round at $670 million, according to PitchBook. More here.
Four biotechs are going public Friday morning: iTeos, Nurix, Annexon and Inozyme. iTeos and Nurix both priced at $19 per share, with each raising $201.1 million and $209 million, respectively. Annexon priced at $17 per share and raised $250.8 million, while Inozyme priced at $16 per share and raised $112 million. Endpoints News has more here.
So far this year, at least 37 venture-backed North American life sciences companies have carried out IPOs, raising a total of $6.7 billion, reports Crunchbase News. By comparison, in all of 2019, the same cohort pulled in just $5 billion across 51 public offerings.
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People
Francoise Brougher, the former Pinterest COO who sued alleging gender discrimination, is prepared to take her case all the way to trial, she tells Bloomberg Television. "I'm very confident in the case I have right now . . .While I was given a seat at the table, I had no power or I was not empowered to use my talent to drive Pinterest forward.”
GV, the venture unit of Google, quietly laid off seven employees yesterday -- or 8% of its staff -- in "investor operations," reports Axios. CEO David Krane told the outlet when asked about the he affected employees that, "“In this rapidly changing market, we’re constantly evolving GV’s operational services to best meet our portfolio’s needs. Reinvesting in how we work with founders at scale is essential as we continue into the next decade.”
Yousuf Khan has joined the early-stage venture firm Ridge Ventures as a partner. Khan was most recently the CIO of Automation Anywhere; he was previously CIO at Moveworks, Pure Storage, and Qualys. More here.
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Essential Reads
Netflix is planning to bring a shuffle feature to its collection of streaming movies and TV shows.
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